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I Am Digital (And So Can You)!

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You might have already seen this, but Newsweek recently posted an interesting by the numbers look at “How the Digital Revolution Changed Our World.” In comparing statistics from 2000 to those of 2010, Nayeli E. Rodriguez shows us how much more digital we have become.

This helps answer the question, “Why should journalists try to learn more web-applicable skills?”

For many journalists, that answer seems to have a variety of answers:

  • That’s the way the industry is heading
  • That’s what the employers are looking for on job posts
  • They want to be versatile so they don’t get laid off
  • This stuff is interesting to learn
  • Google only helps them stalk potential dates so well; they need to learn new ways of digging up dirt
  • Their kids are a step ahead of them in figuring out how to lift the parental controls

What this Newsweek piece puts into perspective: “It’s the way a lot of the world is going, dude.”

What I’m not sure of is whether the 2010 number is cumulative or indicative of 2010 values only. The number of “Law and Order” episodes threw me off. Certainly there weren’t 905 episodes of that in 2010, right? Poor Sam Waterston would get all worn out. No, that must be a cumulative of all the “Law and Order” shows. And thus, I wonder if the statistics on e-mails, text messages and Google searches are cumulative or 2010 only.

But I digress.

Overall, this information reinforces my desire to learn more and stay on top of these trends. But what all do we need to learn? “Internet trends” and “computer savvy skills” are ambiguous phrases, so what specific programs, languages, theories and other shenanigans do we need to learn? One of my next blog posts will show examples of job postings that ask for someone with a wide variety of skills.

Hello, world!

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By intention or accident, you’ve reached my blog. Lucky for you, you’ve hit the first entry, so you haven’t missed anything yet.

I created patrickgarvin.com for a few reasons:

  1. I wanted to showcase my portfolio.
  2. I wanted to “stay current,” as it were. I noticed that other graphics departments wanted their artists to know a myriad other skills, languages and programs in addition to infographics, interactives and illustrations. HTML and CSS were the most ubiquitous skills sought after, so I thought I’d start with those and move my way down the list.
  3. I like a good challenge. I wanted a project through which I could learn those and get feedback from my friends and colleagues who have had more experience with those languages. The more I got their feedback on how I could most effectively and correctly use HTML and CSS, the more incentive I’d have to push myself. In other words, I wanted my trial and error to be on display so that I could cull the wisdom and input of anyone who might see it. Thus, as the site progresses, I look forward to people saying, “Wow, I thought Pat’s site was clean before, but look at what he’s done with it.” And the web geeks can say, “Yeah, and his CSS isn’t sloppy anymore, either!”
  4. Similarly to #4, I wanted a place where I could post projects when I venture into other programs and languages.
My vision for the blog is to use my personal experiences as a jumping off point engage in a discussion about, among other things:
  • The benefits and pitfalls for journalists pushing themselves to learn new skills beyond their chosen crafts
  • How journalists can learn these new skills even if they don’t have an Obi-Wan Kenobi next to them telling them how to use the force and the jQuery libraries
  • The future of infographics in a world where more people might see your work online rather than in print
  • The future of interactive graphics in a world where people might view your work on mobile devices that make roll-overs tricky
  • The changing web trends that everyone in the newsroom, not just the “online folks,” might need to know about
So, enjoy, post on Facebook, retweet, tell your friends and get the word out. I am a graphic artist, and will be writing about graphics, of course, but I expect that these will be discussions in which all people can join, even if you’ve never made a bar chart.
–PMG.